Goat show

This will be a long post. This is where my son's "autism spectrum disorder" and the end of our goat journey come together. Now how they come together is the story. My fear is the story.
So for four months students in the Ag class raise an animal. My son as most know chose a goat. He had to care for it, medicate it, arrange for his living quarters and keep them clean. Then once the four months are over - he preps it to enter the school districts FFA Livestock show. Let me tell you just ordering the FFA jacket was a feat. I received an email from the teacher telling me that Cap wouldn't try on the other kids jackets to see which size I would need to order. Crap here we go. So I email the teacher and tell him I will talk to Cap and could he try them on on another day. I explain to my son that the jacket will have to be worn when he shows his goat (a whole other issue) and that it would make it easier for me to order if he would just try one on so I could order him the correct size. HE DID IT!!
So to enter the show we needed to take our goat up to the barn on Wednesday night. Check in must be done by 8pm or else bum bum bum he won't show. So we leave early to get our goat up there. Good thing since our goat had pulled his tag out of his ear and we had to wait for the teacher to put it back in before we could check in. So yeah, waiting was so much fun with my son. NOT! We check the goat in, bring him food water and wait he is in a pen with 3 other goats. Oh geez. It's okay it worked out fine Thank God. So my son does not show his goat until Friday, but needs to be there to support the kids that show the other animals on Thursday. So yes, he wants Mom to be there. I can do that:) Holy moly that was one long freakin' day. We fed the goat, walked around, watched the other kids show and actually had a good time. (Despite the rain that started that morning and looked like it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.) We left 4pm and went to pick up his dad and came back to bath, feed and water his goat. We had until 8pm and then we had to get out. So we hurried.
Friday morning we were all there at 7:30am and it was raining. The lot was a muddy mess, but we were there. We fed our goat, loaded him with water and then the worry started sinking in. My son has to be able to "brace" the goat to show him. He had been practicing, but the goat had been having none of it. So I chatted to some kids around us and they tried helping Cena cooperate. Cena was having none of it, but Cap got some good pointers out of it and right before show time was starting to get the hang of it. Meltdown one, he was getting irritated with the goat and kids were starting to stare. ugh please let him get this. I told him just get through this and I would buy him 2 packs of sour patch straws. His favorite:) Needless to say I was a quarter's width away from pulling my son out of the show. I was not going to send my son out in front of all those people and kids to be laughed at. How could I do that? My son amazingly wasn't worried at all. This is so unlike him. He is usually the worrier, doesn't want people to stare at him and duh doesn't like the unknown. I had never done this before I had nothing I could tell him and he wasn't asking. I was flabbergasted and in territory I'm not used to with this child. Did I mention that morning I puked twice of nerves? OH and I let my youngest son miss school to attend also, for moral support. He is very close to his brother - well all my kids are close to eachother I'm so blessed.
Any who, the time had come he was to line up and his grandparents had driven 3 hours to watch him show. I stayed with him as long as I could and wished him luck. Told him to do it his way and just watch what everyone else did. I took my seat.....
Needless to say my son's comment to me was "Mom, I already know I'm gonna get sifted and I'm okay with that." My thought when I heard this relief, but then I realize he has to still hold that dang "brace" with his goat. What if the goat goes ape crazy while he is still standing on the side lines. Can you feel my worry yet? I lost 2 pounds in those 2 days. So in he goes, I'm in a front row seat and I'm watching my handsome looking son. He trots the goat around the pen along with all 18 other kids in his goats weight class. Yep 19 total, can you imagine how long he is gonna have to stand in there with Cena? Sick sick I was I tell you. So they walk around, then they stand in line and show the goat. My son looked like a pro:) I was so relieved thank you God for listening to all my prayers. He stood there and the judge did his thing and passed him by. The judge pulled out kids and lo and behold my son is still in the contest. Sweet Jesus really?! More kids get sifted out and now my son is the last one from his school still in there. I laugh and tell my mother in law "right now Cap is saying to himself, I can't believe I'm still in here". lol Well, it didn't last much longer then he gets pulled, but the judge comes back one more time to feel on his goat again. Nope he was just wanting one more feel I guess. So I'm containing tears that he did so well. He did better than any of us were expecting I mean it was his first year. Then he ended up placing and getting a ribbon. He placed 8th WOW!!
Oh then they told him since he placed don't change your clothes, you will need to go back out there. This is really a good thing, unless you are having to constantly tell your kid it's a good thing. lol He survived it though. Oh did I mention when he has to back out there he will have to "brace" his goat again. lol It's an opportunity for him to try and make auction with his animal. Well, little meltdown before due to waiting and then he rocked it again. We were so relieved when Friday was over. We had no idea what Saturday had in store. Cena would be in the freezer sale. That is not fun in any kind of way, but I'll hold off on that. That was a day of meltdowns, exhaustion and frustration and I'm not just talking about for my son. lol
What did I learn from this? Don't sell my son short!! He's grown alot since ABA and having to know what's coming all the time. He still asks what the "plan" is for the day sometimes, but I just say I don't know. AND he deals with it better than I ever dreamed possible. I learned so many things in those days - amazing things about my son. I love him so much<3